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User: eightball

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Comments · 198

  1. Re:Considerably? on Not Enough Women In Computing, Or Too Many Men? · · Score: 1

    That site counts areas that have garbage collectors and no programmers, areas most likely with a lower standard of living. This would tend to depress the garbage collector stats.

  2. Re:My say on this on Not Enough Women In Computing, Or Too Many Men? · · Score: 1

    Is 49 the new 39? Because 17 months ago...

  3. Re:Transferability on Harvard Says Computers Don't Save Hospitals Money · · Score: 1

    I did get distracted by the switch from genes to base pairs. However, you did make a direct comparison between base pairs and [bolts], so I did not apply the qualifier to the wrong part of the sentence, but I did perhaps only address a side point.

    As explained by drosboro, comparing a hunk of iron (which are almost certainly duplicated elsewhere) with a gene is not a valid comparison when we are talking about complexity. I don't think anyone knows how many parts are in the Eiffel tower, however I think it is likely that the bolts are if not the most numerous, they are at least fairly close in number to the most numerous.

    I have no problem with excluding the redundant and repeating parts of DNA. Your problem is that while I can trivially identify where most parts are transcribed on the superstructure of the Eiffel tower with a minimum of structural engineering knowledge, you would have to transcribe all of the base pairs to identify the parts you don't need to map (or come up with a protocol that is sure to win you fame and fortune (and no fair using a computer :)).

  4. Re:Transferability on Harvard Says Computers Don't Save Hospitals Money · · Score: 1

    Sorry you are off by 3 orders of magnitude (2.5 million rivets vs 3 billion base pairs). Also, since the tower has four-fold symmetry and each corner also has right-left symmetry, you can effectively lower it to 300k sets (4 order of magnitude off).

  5. Re:Its called a shot-gun clause... on Arrington's CrunchPad Dies · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A complementary story:
    Banker meets with Poor and learns that for an infusion of $20k, there is projected to be a return of $200k. This is based on a real product that can be at least partially demonstrated. Also there is evidence that the project is worth at least $20k due to the fact that Rich made that offer.

  6. Re:Fuel savings? on "Road Trains" Ready To Roll · · Score: 1

    The lead car could be a bus. Not necessarily a full sized bus, just one that carried extra passengers.

  7. Re:Backwards? on Murderer With "Aggression Genes" Gets Reduced Sentence · · Score: 1

    I don't think you can get 80% of any group of people to agree on the precise purpose of anything.

  8. Re:A question for any legal geeks on Amazon Cuts Off North Carolina Affiliates · · Score: 1

    Define what "the perks" are and maybe someone will be able to address them specifically..
    Defense.. check
    Constitutional protections.. check
    Varying levels of services depending on where you go.. check

  9. Re:More hair-brained ideas for "Global Warming" on DoE Considers Artificial Trees To Remove CO2 · · Score: 1

    Ok, I can see where he got the idea, but it doesn't support his statement as written. ("amount in" vs exposure after breakage of). I would also be interested to see a study about how effective an average person is trying to contain that mercury..

    Btw, I am not anti-CFL, I have a bunch of them.

    Thanks.

  10. Re:More hair-brained ideas for "Global Warming" on DoE Considers Artificial Trees To Remove CO2 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Can I get a source on that claim?

    From what I have seen, a CFL's mercury is measured in milligrams and a can of tuna's mercury is measured in micrograms.

  11. Re:Blu-Ray... on Motion Control To Lengthen Console Hardware Cycles · · Score: 1

    You do realize the Wii MotionPlus is scheduled to be released in 3 days (in NA), don't you? The others have just been announced.

  12. Re:Earth's Oceans Vs. Mars Surface on Google Debunks Maps Atlantis Myth · · Score: 1

    Also, Mars isn't covered in a Barbara Walters filter.

  13. dont know about best on Why Do We Name Servers the Way We Do? · · Score: 0, Troll

    I name the servers I have license to do so after mythical places. The name/place reflects the nature of the machine (firewall, file server, workstation, winders box, remote host).

    I'd link them up with actual names, but I've already said too much.

  14. Re:surprise? on Why Climbers Die On Mount Everest · · Score: 1

    Your Wikipedia link refers to professional football

    That is incorrect. From wikipdia:

    From 1931 to 2006, the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research has reported 1,006 direct and 683 indirect fatalities resulting from participation in all organized football (professional, college, high school, and sandlot) in the US

    and

    In 2006, with an estimated 1.8 million participants in organized football

    ("all organized football (professional, college, high school, and sandlot)" is supposed to be bolded and "sandlot" italicized, but it is not showing up in my browser)

    Note those fatality figures are for 75 years.

    Your original point was referring to deaths due to injuries, whereas the injuries link just shows gross number of any sort of injury, without reference to number of participants.

    Note also that "per capita" usually refers to the general population, not participants. For example, per capita spending values count people who are so unplugged, they don't spend money at all (though these are very small in number).
    Also note, I did not come to any conclusions as to who is right. I haven't seen apples to apples numbers yet, though I went to a few links.

  15. Some facts on Software Holds Cell Phone Calls While Driving · · Score: 5, Informative

    From here

    Key Features:
    Automatic initiation of service
    Passenger override capability
    911 always allowed

    Inbound caller message is played that the subscriber is driving
    Inbound caller is routed to voicemail and text messages are stored and forwarded later
    Outbound calls and text messages are disallowed
    Priority notification is supported as an option
    Location requests are optional, when permission is granted by the subscriber
    Accept list of numbers assures user control over privacy of context information

    but don't let that get into your 2 minutes of hate.

  16. Re:As someone with a spinal injury..... on Safe Stem Cells Produced From Adult Cells · · Score: 1

    AFAIK, umbilical cord blood is also a source of pluripotent stem cells.

  17. Re:I existed before NAT on Level of IPv6 Usage Is Vanishingly Small · · Score: 1

    nobody is gonna upgrade to IPv6

    You sure like your hyperbole, Mr Gates.. You mean, like, ever?

    You have to first trust them

    And you don't have to trust your NAT implementation?

    Look, IPv6 may make NAT unnecessary, but it will not make it illegal. You will be quite free to advertise whatever addresses you want and translate to whatever addresses you want to use (even IPv4 addresses most likely), use site or link local address, etc..

  18. Re:Why 10 years again? on Robot Rebellion Quelled in Iraq · · Score: 1
    Quote from the Army's Program Executive Officer for Ground Forces, Kevin Fahey:

    once you've done something that's really bad, it can take 10 or 20 years to try it again. The way I had read the 10-20 year comment was that a major disaster, such as the robot turning AND firing, would be the sort of thing that could postpone deployment 10-20 years. So, instead they didn't allow it to go that far and pulled the plug.
  19. Re:Mod parent up on Radiation Not As Hazardous As Once Believed · · Score: 2, Informative

    Could be fake news from a site owned by the same person as the OPs home page, with some suggestion the owner is the OP.

    I would have gone with "Funny" myself, though.

  20. Re:scared of hydrogen on Microbes Churn Out Hydrogen at Record Rate · · Score: 1

    If we were at the point that we were burning large amounts of H2 for energy, you could just put a condenser on the exhaust and have lots of pretty clean water. You could then use that water for input into the system or for drinking.

  21. Your ideas are intriguing and ,,, on Vinyl To Signal the End for CDs? · · Score: 1

    I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
    One of the issues with store brands or non-name brands is the supplier can be changed at any time and there wouldn't be an indication of that.

    Do you have any tips for finding out these dual marketed products? Is it usually insider provided information?
    Thanks.

  22. Appears to have been relisted on Enigma Machine for Sale on eBay · · Score: 1

    The link no longer works and I find one available for sale Buy it now for $50,000, but no pics.

  23. Re:Gee, why is no one switching to IPv6? on IPv6 Tested in Space · · Score: 1

    Fatal error: Duplicate entry '0' for key 2 query: INSERT INTO sessions (sid, uid, hostname, timestamp) VALUES ('2fc2ba681282e862af2a6ae8e9518927', 0, '255.255.255.255', 1176091135) in /srv/www/kim/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 66

    ip changed to protect me

  24. I can't believe I am the first to mention this on The End of Net Anonymity In Brazil · · Score: 1

    What is this the Ellers/Ellison/Ellensburg Identity Act?

    ---
    WWGD

  25. Re:Additional price? I call bullshit on X-Prize to Award $10M for Fast Sequencing · · Score: 1

    I wondered about this before but I think I have it. In section 1.5, there is a limit of $10,000 cost per genome on average. In section 1.21, they state that they will pay a fee at actual cost per genome determined by the judge (nb this presumably may actually be less that $10,000). Hence, a maximum of $1,000,000.
    It also seems that if you refuse the 'bonus', you may be penalize by twice that amount from the initial prize.

    rules here. Thanks nyri